The view from our upstairs balcony in Scottsdale, Arizona. If you look closely, you might be able to see California from here 🙂
Our House
Ok, so it’s not a travel destination, well, unless we were coming back from a trip. Just thought I would post this here to show that in between all the travels, films, festivals, and other outings, we did have somewhere to return to for our brief moments in Arizona.
The tragic thing about this place is that we rarely ever use the kitchen for more than making tea and occasionally baking something or other. We only on occasion use the dining room as we typically eat right at our computer, where we also entertain ourselves. The living room is only used when we have company over. We have a second bedroom, and it has been used, but mostly it’s empty, and we try to keep the air-conditioning vent closed. We have three bathrooms because why not?
Our bedroom is one of two places we love here, and while the bedroom is just that, we have a balcony that offers us a great view looking from the south to the west and the north.
This is the other place we spend the majority of our time sitting right next to each other. The photo on my screen of Caroline was from our trip this past weekend to Los Angeles.
It’s bright, airy, and wide open, and while we like looking at it, it doesn’t feel lived in.
Our cats (this is Andy) probably get more use of the place than we do as they roam all over the place. However, I think as long as they have one cozy place in the sun, they could lounge in and one dark corner each where they could hide, they’d be happy anywhere.
Los Angeles – Day 2
The motel we love to hate and hate to love: California Inn in Ontario. First and foremost, it is cheap. Second, it is close to where my father lives. Third, it seems the TV is nearly always tuned to their free porno channel when we turn it on. Other than the sketchy people who stay here (except us, of course) and the yelling, random beating on the door looking for someone we are not, the questionable cleanliness, and the dated rooms, we actually kind of really like this motel.
This is the kind of vehicle Caroline is highly qualified to drive; it is exactly her speed. We came back to the San Gabriel Nursery this morning to pick up some plants we were looking at yesterday, seeing we’ll be driving back to Arizona this afternoon and don’t need to worry about them getting too hot in the car. Caroline packed up Salvia Divinorum, aromatic Cleveland sage (Salvia sp.), red tea hibiscus, chocolate mint, a tiny lavender, a plumeria cutting, and sweet woodruff.
The next stop is the Huntington Library, Art Collection, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. This used to be a private residence in the early 1900s but is now home to 150 acres of various themed gardens and several art galleries.
Italian 17th-century statuary chilling in the California Sun.
The Japanese Gardens also feature a Tea Room that was originally the gardener’s quarters in a small part of a garden house built for Mrs. Huntington. More than a few of the bonsai trees are priceless in their perfection and age, and due to that value, they are chained down to discourage theft.
Like the statuary above, this giant red specimen of Dragonfly remained motionless as I was afforded the opportunity for a close approach to snap my photo.
While we spent a few hours in the garden we weren’t able to visit the museum and library on this day, so we have to make a note to return. The other thing we should pay attention to is the progress of their Chinese Garden, which is intended to be the largest outside of China.
Maybe we got a little too much sun?
After leaving the garden, we headed east, stopping for lunch at Mix Bowl Cafe. Today, we discovered the pleasures of Thai pearl iced tea, also known as boba tea, and fried morning glory in oyster sauce. The pearls in the tea are made of tapioca and have practically no flavor but are fun to slurp out of the cup with the help of the extra-wide straw. Add to our lunch some steamed Koo chai dumplings and an order of pad kee mow (spicy rice noodles with mint leaves and deep-fried tofu), and we were ready to go visit my father around the corner.
Unfortunately, we missed Diana, but chatted with my dad for a couple of hours before hitting the long road home shortly before 5:00 p.m. We managed to stop only once in California – at the Starbucks in Banning – reaching the Arizona state line before Sunset.
Los Angeles – Day 1
We left Ontario early for a visit to the San Gabriel Nursery and Florist to “waste” some time before our first real destination opened. The theme this weekend is “Gardens in the City.” While at the Nursery, we browsed and enjoyed the fruit tree and bonsai sections, as well as the roses and herbs. There’s a small greenhouse area with house plants (such as the money tree) and a beautiful flower shop for floral arrangements. Of course, they have tons of greenhouses on the premises, but they are not open for customers to saunter into.
Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge is one of two main to-do’s we have planned for today. The neighborhood alone is worth a visit, with huge mansions and beautiful gardens. We spent about 3 hours here and can easily recommend the Camellia Forest as it’s awesome.
With the L.A. basin being a zoo of pavement and cars it’s easy to not recognize the lush landscape that thrives in some of this city’s neighborhoods. While Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Drive, along with Disneyland and the southern California beaches, draw the majority of visitors’ attention, one should, if time allows, either drive through some of the older neighborhoods or carve out time to visit a place like Descanso or the Huntington (we are heading over there tomorrow).
The Hairy Alien Tongue plant is poisonous if it licks you; fortunately, they are behind a glass enclosure, so we were never in danger. By the way, I’m kidding. We walked the paths through shady groves of blossoming trees, being careful not to disturb the many spiders who spun their beautiful webs from plant to plant, sometimes even across the path. In the sunny spots, lizards tried to keep cool by doing push-ups, or maybe they were warming up; who knows? There is also a small Japanese area with a tea house, pond, and a Zen garden.
The Boddy House Gallery, which is a former residence turned art gallery, was open, and we took a look inside at exhibits of two painters and a pottery artist. Caroline particularly liked the pottery, but the paintings of Fealing Lin were the most beautiful in her eyes. Another favorite was two large watercolor paintings of colorful flowers. We met the artist and took the opportunity to compliment her on her work.
Next, we took a nature trail through Chaparral, which just means all kinds of native riparian plants – in other words, an area that has not been “domesticated” but rather left alone, except for the trail and plant name signs. We found several aromatic sage plants there, but since there was no tree cover, we started overheating and were glad to get back to the more shady areas. Then we meandered a bit through more native plants like poppies that grow taller than 7 feet and some very impressive cacti. As we were passing a pond, we noticed a tiny train track crossing the path, and soon afterward, a miniature train chugged past. A glance at the map confirmed that our round trip through the Gardens was almost finished. We lingered for a short time in the International Rosarium, which features rose hybrids sorted by their countries of creation. We had no idea that Germany and Denmark have contributed such impressive varieties to the world of roses. The aromas are truly intoxicating.
These things, too, are becoming a rarity. The once ubiquitous payphone and phone books are quickly disappearing; it’s only a matter of time before cell phones replace them all.
Making a visual note to remind us to visit the Warhol exhibit. It always feels like there’s something to do in L.A. and yet another thing we’ll regret not having done before we go back home. We are on Melrose Avenue for some lunch at an Indian joint before going to the movies.
Kind of a strange juxtaposition as this icon of wholesomeness, John Wayne, stands vigil in front of the Larry Flynt offices. We are here for the complimentary parking courtesy of Hustler.
This is another big reason we are here in L.A. this weekend, the film “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” just opened. This movie made by the Canadian Inuit about the Inuit is being screened at the historic Cecchi Gori Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills. The film is nothing short of brilliant, visually and story-wise. It does what a movie should do; it takes us somewhere else and leaves us having experienced something outside our daily lives. It was a big wow! At about 3 hours long you should have no worries because at no moment was this film ever boring.
After dinner at Zakuro for Shabu Shabu and Sukiyaki with our friend Mark Shimer, we took a stroll around Little Tokyo. This little shop called Daikokuya Ramen looks interesting, something for a future visit.
The dessert was Imagawayaki from Mitsuru Cafe, also in Little Tokyo. What is Imagawayaki, you might ask? They are a kind of pancake filled with sweet azuki bean paste that was first made at the Kanda Imagawabashi bridge back in 1772 and was named after the river Imagawa. This place in downtown L.A. was the first in America to make this traditional Japanese treat.
A trip into Little Tokyo would not be complete without a stop at Kinokuniya. Just try to find a better Japanese bookstore in all of southern California.
It’s 12:30 a.m. when we get on the 101 freeway and find ourselves stuck in a traffic jam moving at a mere 30 mph – that’s Los Angeles. Well before this, though, we had browsed the old and new music, including a healthy selection of vinyl at Amoeba Music, which just opened late last year; this place is enormous. Across the street, we dipped into the Arclight Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard to see The Salton Sea with Val Kilmer. Because we were recently at the Salton Sea and we’ve liked Val Kilmer in some of his previous movies, we thought this might be kind of interesting, but we were wrong. I suppose almost anything we would have seen after The Fast Runner would have paled in comparison.
Los Angeles – Day 0
Yet another trip to Los Angeles, driving across the sunny desert of the southwest on Interstate 10. Regarding the toothy grin, I don’t know where that came from either, as they just slip out from time to time.
We left after Caroline was done with work and made great time getting out of Arizona. Based on our notes, we brought a laptop, and Caroline used the drive time to get some website work done. We arrived in Ontario at the California Inn around 10:30 p.m. but could not resist driving over to Mix Bowl for a late dinner. It was really busy, too, as usual, and the food was delicious.
Winkleman, Arizona
It was time to stock up on Maria’s tortillas again. These are handmade flour tortillas from a small shop in Mammoth, Arizona, and we love them. They are simply made of water, flour, shortening, baking soda, and salt; they are perfect. We found them a few months ago in the Giorsetti general store in Winkelman, which is south of Superior. Since our friend Arturo and his family recently moved to Tucson, we decided to drop by and say hello today.
We left around 11:30 in blazing sunshine. The temperature was about 108 degrees even though the radio gleefully announced it was merely 99 degrees. Apparently, they measure the temperature for the entire valley in some shady spot with a lawn instead of the usual sun-beaten concrete that makes up most of Phoenix. We slipped into Boyce-Thompson Arboretum as they were having a “Leafy Plant Sale – 50% off” sign on the road and picked up a jojoba plant. Caroline had wanted one for some time; she even tried to grow one from seeds, unsuccessfully. The friendly person at the ticket office informed us that our next stop, Ed’s La Casita restaurant in Superior, had been sold. No more spicy avocado salsa! For a moment, we contemplated driving on through Miami to Globe for a visit to the main Ed’s La Casita there, but that would have been a good detour, so we made do with a frozen lime bar for Caroline and Dairy Queen for me. Yes, folks, the Dairy Queen is open, even if it doesn’t look like it.
We turned off the 60 in Superior and drove south on Highway 177. Talk about a scenic back road! The desert vistas are spectacular. Highway 177 leads past the Ray Mines (sorry, we missed the overlook into the mines – more pictures next time, but that is a small corner of it in the photo above) and several tiny towns like Kelvin, Riverside, Kearny, and Hayden before reaching Winkelman. We stopped in Kearny to take a closer look at that town. There is a large school complex and a main-street-style road with shops and a motel close to the highway and nice-looking homes down the hill towards the Gila River. On “Main Street,” a plaque commemorates Stephen Watts Kearny, Brevet Major General of the US Army and the town’s namesake. He camped in the area with his troops in 1846. There is also a nifty engine that was used in the underground mine until it was retired in 1955. It was powered by compressed air. I snapped a couple of pictures and then jumped back in the car.
We arrived in Winkelman shortly before 2:00 p.m. and left with seven dozen still-warm tortillas. Yum! We broke into the first bag while we were still in the store!
We blew through Mammoth and Oracle to Oro Valley to meet with the Silvas, who turned out to still be unpacking and moving into their new house. Our visit was short, and before we knew it, we were back on the road traveling the Pinal Pioneer Parkway.
About halfway between Oracle Junction and Florence, which is the most beautiful part of this Highway in our opinion, is a picnic area next to the Tom Mix Memorial. Even though we’ve driven past the memorial at least one other time, we never stopped. Caroline had asked before, “So, who is this guy?” Today, we stop to learn more. Tom Mix was a star of silent films, westerns to be exact. He appeared in over 300 of them in the 1920s but fell out of the limelight when talkies appeared. Tom died right here on the highway to Florence in 1940 – apparently, he ignored warnings about some road damage and, during a rather bumpy stretch (a bridge had been washed away), a suitcase flung itself from the back of his car and crushed his head. After reading this description I began to wonder how there is no movie about this guy. The killer suitcase can be found in Dewey, OK, in the Tom Mix Museum. There is also the Tom Mix Comes Home Museum near Driftwood, PA, where they have a celebrity outhouse. Only in America. Need I say more?
Next, we stopped in Florence for a closer look. At first glance, this town seems dwarfed by several prison complexes right by the highway. There is a state prison and a detention center – and a Prison Outlet store! It has to be seen to be believed… Unfortunately, we got there after closing time, so we were unable to indulge in some binge shopping. You can buy hay, jewelry, clothing, and a load of other goods manufactured by inmates. Why they would call it “Outlet” is a mystery to us. Doesn’t that imply that some of these things are sold at a premium somewhere else? Can you imagine “Arizona Prison Stores” at your local shopping mall?
But the town of Florence itself is very nice and larger than it appears from the highway. There is a nice visitor center, a large county building (unfortunately in a state of disrepair), and a cute Main Street with brick buildings, a grocery, antique and hardware stores, and a couple of bars and restaurants. One of them (unfortunately I forgot to jot down its name) is open to 1:00 A.M.! Talk about nightlife in small-town America!
After our visit to Prisonville, we started on the last leg back to the Valley. Arturo and Guadalupe had recommended earlier that we stop at the El Rancho Mexican grocery store on Southern and Central, and so we did. Neither of us recalls ever seeing a grocery store that busy! Most impressive were the stuffed deli and bakery counters. Happy music blasted over the speakers while shoppers took a break and had a bite to eat on benches in the cheerfully decorated area near the produce section. Fresh salsas and desserts are also available, as well as homemade lemonades, horchata, jamaica, you name it. Further in the store are fresh cheese counters and the carniceria, where Caroline saw her first cow head sans skin but still including the eyes looking out, or maybe not doing that. It held an ear of corn on the cob between its teeth – decoration is key here when selling the entire head! Whole pig heads are also available, but not on display like the cow’s head. I like the fact that these folks don’t buy into the theory that the only edible meat is faceless steak! We picked up a couple of items, but unfortunately, they did not have cajeta envinada or the chilorio that we were looking for.